Rapping is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and [commonly] street vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content", "flow", and "delivery". Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it is usually performed off-time to musical accompaniment. It also differs from singing, which varies in pitch and does not always include words. Because they do not rely on pitch inflection, some rap artists may play with timbre or other vocal qualities. Rap is a primary ingredient of hip hop music, and so commonly associated with that genre that it is sometimes called "rap music".
American rapper 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) sporting a hip-hop look at Warfield Theatre, San Francisco, June 3, 2010
Ekow, part of The Megaphone State rap duo, performing at the Sello Library in Espoo, Finland, in 2011
Nicki Minaj, a female rapper, is sometimes regarded as the “Queen of Rap”.
Russian rapper Oxxxymiron is one of the most viewed battle rappers in the world.
Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a "libretto" and their writer, as a "librettist". Rap songs contain rap lyrics that are meant to be spoken rhythmically rather than sung. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of expression.
A lyrist on the Standard of Ur, c. 2500 BC